Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-05-02

against the woman, clinging to the let
ter OF the law. "ThOse whom God hath
joined together let no man put asunder,"
forgetting that many marriages seem
made not by God but, if may say lit, by
the devil, and that even the marriage
service itself warns US that "as many as
are coupled together otherwise than as
Gods word doth allow are not Joined to-
gether by him, neither is their matrimony
lawful"
sELF-sACRIFICE NOT THE RIGHT THING.
"Many marriages are unlawful from
the first" continues the writer, "and
many more that become unlawful after
fard, to continue in which is far more
sinful than to break them. Besides inf
deity, the one cause for which English
law iustifes q woman in quitting her
husband, there are ether wrongs, equally
cruel and equally fatal in result, which
society allows her to endure to the bitter
end. a man may be confirmed drank
ard, a spendthrift, liar, sCoundrel so
complete that no honest gentlemen would
admit him within his doors; and yet
the wretched woman, his wife, is
expected to do her duty to
stick to him through thick and
thin-so goes the phrase. She must shut
her eyes to all his sins, and make believe
to herself and the world at large that
none exist; 'obey him and serve him. &C
cording to her marriage VOW; continue
to be the mistress of his house, and
most terrible fate of all!-the mother of
his children. Aud the world, even the
virtuous half it, will uphold her, praise
! her, Affirming that she only does what
] vJifa 1nh 70 do bof ba
| is quite in the right to do it. l say she
is in the wrong, culpably in the wrong
! that her noble endurance, falsely So
! called, is mere Cowardice, and her conju-
! gal submission degradation as sinful as
/ that Of many woman who Omits the
marriage ceremony altogether. Even her
! self-sacrifice is crime, for it does not
end with herself"
| And here is where the writer thinks
endurance should end. The childless
wife may immediate herself upon the
moral suffice if she chooses, but Woman's
first duty is to her children and where it
| clashes with her duty to her husband
there is no doubt which she should
| choose. A man can take care of him
! self, can ruin or save himself,
but very seldom can woman save 8
! IuOIOuSuly Dau uuSOduu. NOT Is sue re-
! sponsible for him beyond q certain extent.
! She is responsible for her children from
] the hour of their birth.
THE FIRST DUTY TO THE CHILDREN.
No mere fault or misfortune, such as
/ incompatibility of temper, hopeless sick
ness or worldly ruin, does IN the least
abrogate that solemn "for better, fol-
worse" but vice does. Confirmed drunk,
enness, evil courses of any kind, utter
lack of principle, cruel tyrsnny, or that
violence of temper which is akin to mad
ness and as dangerous; anything which
compels woman to say to her children
that to serve God they must not initiate
their father, warrants her in quit
ting him and taking them away
from him. Whenever things come
| to that pass that the vileness of the
father will destroy the children, physi.
cally and morally, then the mothers
course is clear. She must save them,
not suffer their fathers sins to blight
their whole future existence. For-let
me dare to utter the plain trutn-they
ought never to have existed at all. To
make a drunksrd, a debauchee, scoun-
drel OF any sort, the father of her chill
dren is, to any righteous woman, a sin oil